In case you own a Samsung Galaxy Nexus you are now in one of three camps, depending on which model you happen to own. If you rock a GSM unlocked version then, for you, Jelly Bean is so “last summer”. However, if you’ve got Verizon’s model you’re either experimenting with custom ROMs or you’re patiently waiting for Big Red to roll-out the update.

The third category of Galaxy Nexus owners are those of you who own Sprint’s version, and thankfully things are starting to look less bleak for you.

In case you’ve followed us last week you should already be aware of the fact that some Sprint Galaxy Nexus devices already received the update OTA, but if you’re not amongst those who got the update, fret not: there is a solution.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) at Sprint

If you’re tired of waiting for Sprint to roll-out Android 4.1 on your Galaxy Nexus then you might be happy to find out that the files are now available for download from Google’s servers. That being said, you can pull the files and manually update your Sprint Galaxy Nexus to Jelly Bean.

There are however a few requirements and some steps you need to follow in order to successfully do so. First of all your Nexus must have the latest Sprint OTA version installed (FG01). Second of all, you have to rock the stock/locked device in order to root, must be running custom recovery or you must have an unlocked bootloader with the stock recovery.

If these requirements are met then you’re ready for Android 4.1.1. Next step is to download the necessary files and then use one of the three different flashing methods for the official OTA. You can run either custom recovery, run stock recovery with root access / locked bootloader, or use stock recovery with unlocked bootloader.

For more information about how to do these things feel free to head down to XDA forums and check out the multiple methods explained at the bottom of the first post.

If you’re not confident in doing these steps then you’ll probably want to wait for the OTA update to arrive on your device. It shouldn’t be long now.